The Best Places to Eat in Singapore's Changi Airport
This article is part of our airport food survival guide, which includes tips and tricks—even a hot take or two—that challenge the notion that airport meals are always dull, overpriced, and tasteless.
Changi Airport is many things: super-efficient aviation hub, surreal tropical garden, shopping haven. But for locals, it will first and foremost always be a sprawling celebration of food. This is where we load up on chicken rice and kopi (robust local coffee) before a trip; where we get our fix of bak chor mee (springy minced meat noodles tossed in mouth-puckering, piquant gravy) or kaya toast when we land; where we meet for meals even when we don’t have a flight to catch.
With nearly 200 dining outlets dotted across four terminals and the iconic glass-domed mall called Jewel, Changi is one airport where the challenge lies not in scoring a decent meal, but deciding where to eat. To save you the legwork, here’s our guide to the best restaurants and where to eat in Changi Airport.
Longer indulgences at Changi Airport
Local celebrity chef Violet Oon’s elegant eponymous temple to Peranakan cuisine in Singapore’s National Gallery is a fixture in most travel guides, but her charming branch on Jewel’s first floor is a convenient alternative for travelers. Must-orders include the dry laksa (a spiced noodle dish), and the complex chicken buah keluak made with an Indigenous lethal nut that’s detoxed before cooking. Meanwhile, the lively vibes and sharing portions at Jumbo Seafood (L3 Jewel) are great for larger groups. This is where you’ll find authentic chili crab, one of Singapore’s national dishes, with lashings of gravy best mopped up with fluffy mantou buns.
For a different communal-style meal, head to Beauty In The Pot (B2 Jewel), where giant hot pots brimming with savory and spicy soups are served to share. The restaurant is open until 3 a.m. daily, making this a convenient choice for those with flights at inconvenient hours. Come the third quarter of 2024, the refined Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck will open a new outlet on the first floor of Jewel, offering its trademark Peking duck pancakes alongside elevated Cantonese dishes.
Casual sit-down meals at Changi Airport
Local café chain PS Cafe is famous for its decadent cakes and shoestring truffle fries showered in shaved parmesan, but its Art Deco-themed space on the second floor of Jewel comes with an added treat: A view of the mall’s dramatic Rain Vortex waterfall (ask for a table at the back for prime viewing). Down in Basement 2, Hainan Story is a multi-concept eatery offering traditional and modern Hainanese cuisine from different brands under one roof. The menu features everything from noodles to Western plates (many early Hainanese immigrants to Singapore served as chefs to the British during colonial rule), but the thing to order here is the chicken rice, a recipe from one of Singapore’s most storied shops.
Another popular name with a Changi Airport branch is Swee Choon, whose flagship store in the grungy Jalan Besar neighborhood is a hotspot for celebrities seeking a late-night dim sum supper. While its polished Terminal 2 outlet lacks the gritty character of the main restaurant, it’s open round the clock, and many of Swee Choon’s bestselling items—like its mee suah kueh, a crispy noodle cake with shrimp—are available here.
Ten-minute bites at Changi Airport
No matter what hour it is, you can sample Singapore’s celebrated hawker fare at Singapore Food Street in the transit area of Terminal 3. This 24-hour food court is packed with popular stalls like Tai Wah Pork Noodle, where the zingy, vinegary noodles are a great perk-me-up, and Rong Cheng Bak Kut Teh, whose herbal pork broth makes for a comforting post-flight meal.
Over in T2, a visit to Ya Kun is a must for that quintessentially Singaporean all-day breakfast of kaya toast and rich, sweet coffee. Crave, a modern off-spin of one of the country’s most well-known nasi lemak stalls, is also worth seeking out for its star dish: bento boxes of aromatic coconut rice piled with your pick of toppings, like crispy whitebait or fried chicken. For a grab-and-go snack, drop by curry puff institution Old Chang Kee (in the transit areas of T2, 3, and 4) for its chunky chicken-and-potato-filled pastry parcels, or follow the queues at Jewel to the trendy Birds of Paradise ice cream parlor, where delicate botanical flavors like white chrysanthemum or lychee raspberry are dolloped onto fragrant, thyme-infused cones.
Best food gifts you can buy at Changi Airport
You can’t leave food-obsessed Singapore without bringing a few edible treats home, and Changi Airport is a one-stop-shop for some of the country’s most beloved food products. Top on many travelers’ lists is snack store Irvins, which has five locations across the airport. The bestsellers here are the packs of potato chips and crispy fish skin sprinkled with salted egg and curry leaves, which come with the very real warning that they are ‘dangerously addictive.’
For the sweet-toothed, there are pillowy roll cakes from Rich & Good on the first level of Jewel. They melt in the mouth, but when armored in their pastel pink boxes, are tough enough to survive a flight. While the coconut-laced kaya version is a crowd favorite, more adventurous foodies may want to try the pungent durian flavor (just make sure you keep it sealed in-flight). And at nearby Indonesian-style traditional bakery Bengawan Solo, a familiar sight in many local neighborhoods, you won’t go wrong with a tub of crunchy prawn rolls or pineapple tarts—tasty bites that will remind you of your travels well after you’ve stepped off the plane.
Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler
